Washington County ranks high in business investment

PITTSBURGH – The 10-county Pittsburgh region notched its fifth consecutive year as a top U.S. location for business investment, a Pittsburgh economic development group announced Tuesday.

Washington County made its mark by taking the No. 2 spot just behind Allegheny County in the number of economic development deals that were sealed last year among the 10 counties.

During a news conference, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance said the anchor for the five-year span of sustained economic prosperity and employment opportunities were the 269 economic development deals, or “wins,” across the region during 2012, as well as record-high employment last year, and Pittsburgh’s position as a national leader for job growth in high-wage industries.

PRA, an affiliate of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, presented its annual economic development performance scorecard for the region at the Fairmont hotel.

“Across all 10 counties of the region and in all five key industry sectors, companies are investing,” said Allegheny Conference Chief Executive Officer Dennis Yablonsky. “The deals of 2012 represent billions of dollars that will further build up the regional business landscape with new and expanded facilities, in addition to the expectation of job creation and retention in coming years.”

Second on the list was Consol Energy’s BMX Mine, shorthand for Bailey Mine Expansion, a multi-year, $500,000 capital project in Greene County.

Washington County took the fourth, fifth and ninth spots of the top 10 investment list, with new headquarters projects in Southpointe II by Mylan Inc. ($60 million) and Ansys Inc. ($52 million), along with Perryman Inc. for its purchase of the Houston-based Accellent, which supplies high-quality forgings to the medical device industry. PRA pegged the advanced manufacturing expansion at $20 million.